Taken from the UK Angel magazine March 2004 Dru calling
Drusilla may be completely insane and terrifyingly lethal, but it's always a pleasure for us viewers to see her turning up every now and then in Buffy and Angel. And since her last appearance in Angel's "Destiny" revealed a shocking twist in the Spike/Angel/Dru relationship, we thought it was about time we caught up with Dru actress Juliet Landau for an insightful chat!
Part of the appeal for guest stars of Angel and the late Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the way that their characters can weave in and out of storylines as the tapestry of the Whedon-verse continues to evolve and expand. Actress Juliet Landau sereves as a perfect example of this. Since debuting on Buffy as vampire Drusilla in Season Two's "School Hard" (which co-starred James Marsters as Dru's vampire lover, Spike( Juliet has reprised the role an impressive 22 times, most recently on the "Destiny" episode of "Angel". Along the way, the character has not only served as a tangible threat in the present, but in different time periods via flashback- all of which have played an intergral role in Dru's gradual evolution. "Getiing to work on a character for such a length of time is something that I liken to doing a run of a play," muses the daughter of Mission:Impossible and Space 1999's Martin Landau and Barbara Bain. "When you work on a play, and you do, say, eight shows a week from opening night through 40 shows later, this other sort of thing starts to happen where you gradually begain to find so much more in the character. Playing Drusilla has been the same kind of experience, except that the text is different every time as opposed to a play where it's the same text night after night. But getting to live with this character and bringing her out over six years- well, I've never really had the longevity of that kind of experience before as a character. It's so great and I've been so busy doing other things, too, so it's this balance where I get to play this great role and I get to do many other things as well. I love this role,"Juliet continues. "There's just so much dimension and it's really a great time working on this part. In terms of history, you're dealing with characters who are 200 years old, so there's quite a bit of lineage there. The cast and creators are wonderful- both Buffy and Angel have been great shows to work on, and working on "Destiny" was wonderful. In "Destiny" ngel and Spike vie for the virtual Holy Grail of the vampire worlf: the Cup of Perpetual Torment, which will supposedly transform a vampire back into human form in fulfillment of the Shanshu Prophecy. Along thw ay, the episode flashes back to the 1880's where we discover that the rivalry and antagonism betwen Spike and Angel has often been over their feelings for the same woman: Buffy in the present and Drusilla in the past. "The appeal,"Juliet explains,"is that it sort of takes place right after I've made Spike a vampire, and invesigates that love triangle between Angel, William and Drusilla. That's the theme of it, and it's always great to come back and work with the boys and to explore new colours and dimensions in the role." This is an opportunity that presented itself to Juliet from
